Story+1978-07-05+Los+Angeles,+CA

“Hey…are you ready to step out? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Night”**

“Hey...gimme some lights, I can’t see...how was everybody’s Fourth of July, huh? (crowd cheers) I went down to the Santa Monica Pier…it’s like a combat zone down there, you got...(?) did you see all the fancy stuff in the paper about me? (crowd cheers) that’s a big deal, right?...I got to tell you, I only levitate up to the upper decks on Mondays and Wednesdays’ shows (crowd cheers) today’s Wednesday?...Wednesdays and Fridays...Wednesdays and Fridays and I don’t do no windows... (...) (Bruce sees two security guards pushing fans around) Who are you two guys?...you guys work here?...get out of here, these guys are my friends (crowd cheers)…well, Hazy Davy, he got really hurt…”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Spirit in the Night”**

”You guys ought to sit down, we’re gonna playing a long time so... sit down so everybody can see and stuff...be right back…if you ever spend any time waiting in the darkness on the edge of town, this is for you...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Darkness on the Edge of Town”**

“Thank you…this is a song I wrote back in 1972...it was, uh... covered by Greg Kihn on Beserkley Records, he made a real good... he made an album I liked a lot....was, uh...and, uh...here’s greetings from Asbury Park...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “For You”**

“Bruuuce (chuckles)...this is for, uh...this is for Mary* down at KMET (crowd cheers) see, you guys, you guys can’t see what she looks like, she’s real pretty and I asked her for a date last night, I don’t know if she’s gonna go out with me or not (chuckles)(crowd cheers) this is for her and, uh...we’ve got a new album around about a month...and this is a pretty good song, this is called “Promised Land”...” [The night before, on Fourth of July, Bruce, Jon Landau and Dave Marsh turned up at the studios of KMET and Bruce gave DJ Mary Turner a lengthy interview during which he asked her out.]
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “The Promised Land”**

“They put...I come into town, they put this...when you got records out, they put these big billboards up, you know...I don’t like them ...they’re funny ‘cause I came into town and I see mine, I said “Goddamn, that’s, that’s ugly, you know,” it’s like, it’s like (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) I’m ugly, I ain’t that ugly though (chuckles) my nose ain’t that big, you know (chuckles) you know but so last night around two or three in the morning...yesterday we bought all these spray cans of black paint...and you should drive down there when you’re done with the show because we painted it up a little bit (chuckles)(crowd cheers) we made a few, we made a few improvements, I couldn’t reach my nose, though, it was too high (laughs from the crowd) my face was like way up (chuckles) anyway, gotta prove it all night...” [From Brucebase: “Several hours after the interview at KMET Bruce, Clarence, Garry and a couple of members of their tour entourage sneak up on the roof of a building on Sunset Strip and spray paint the huge billboard AD promoting the Darkness LP.”]
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, “Prove It All Night”**

“Alright...I got...I got this little sister...and she, she’s here tonight, she just turned 16 (crowd cheers) and it’s funny because she’s got a license, you know, I hear they let you guys drive early, back home you can’t drive till you’re 17...it’s like, she’s got her license so I go out with her in her car, she’s got an old, late 60’s Mercury Cougar 302 and, you know, we go out there and soon as we get in the car, she says (someone yells) no...she says, she says “How many tickets you got?”...I say “Well, you know, I got like...what you mean, like parking tickets, I got a lot of parking tickets” “No” she says “Speeding tickets” (chuckles) I say “Well, you know, I got like...I got a few, I got one or two”...she says “I’ve got two and I’ve only been driving for a month” (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) you know she’s like, she’s got a lot of nerve...I remember I got this one ticket once, I was, I got this old white pick-up truck...and this guy gave me a motorcycle, I was driving up to his motorcycle shop ...and I was like just following in a traffic, like I’m driving along but everybody else was going, doing about 70 so I was doing about 70 and I was like, I was the last car so the cop coming up behind me and puts his light on but I got the bike in back and I can’t see him so I don’t stop, you know, so I’m just driving, you know, I’m having a good time driving along (chuckles) and finally (imitates the police siren) puts the siren on, pulls me over...says “Let me have your license, I.D,” I don’t have it and, uh (laughs from the crowd) (chuckles) I always forget to carry that stuff with me when I go out, you know, I never carry my wallet, I always leave it home but anyway I tell him who I am and he gets back in the car and then he signals me to come back, I come back, he says “Hey, are you, are you that rock and roll singer?” (chuckles)(crowd cheers) so, so, so it was funny, I think then I said...I got made here (laughs from the crowd) this guy’s gonna, this guy’s gonna let me go, I say “Yeah, yeah, I’m him,” he says, he says “Yeah, man, they’re blasting your ass all over the radio here, you really him?” I say “Yeah, yeah, I’m him”…he says “Well, boy, you’re in a lot of trouble” (chuckles) (crowd cheers) I say “What do you (chuckles) what do you mean?” he made me go down to the station, you know the cop station, it was way out in the sticks, I remember I opened the door and this, this policeman in his full uniform jumped out in front of me with a roll of what looked like wallpaper...and went “One for the money, two” (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) you know, that’s like unfortunately true but it’s like you know (chuckles)...it’s like, they let me go…but they said “Next time I’ll be looking for you”...they let me go with two tickets that is (chuckles) but this is for my little sister...and here’s “Racing in the Street”...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Racing in the Street”**

“Hey (chuckles) get in your seats, did you get your popcorn out there? (chuckles)...gimme that thing again (Max clings the cymbals or whatever they’re called) are you ready for round two? (crowd cheers) in this corner...master of the universe...king of the world... weighing in at 260 pounds...Clarence Clemons...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Paradise by the C”**

“I’ll do this song for you (?)(chuckles) every place I go I see your face...this is, uh...this is on Robert Gordon’s second album, this is called “Fire”...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Fire”**

“I remember...one night...I was coming in kind of late...and...my father used to wait for me every night in the kitchen...and, uh... he’d just be sitting there in the dark, you know, have a six-pack of beer, drinking, waiting for me to come in...and I remember I’d come in...slick my hair back real tight so it didn’t look too long and, uh...he said “Bruce...sit down, I wanna talk to you for a while”...so I sit down, you know and we start talking...and then we’d start yelling at each other (chuckles) and pretty soon we’d be like, he, well, not we, he would be chasing me around the kitchen table... you know...I never made it into the dining room to be chased around the dining room table, it was always like (chuckles) I got into the first room, he chased me around the table...I’d run out the screen door...run outside, back out into the street and, uh...I still don’t know what the living room looks like in that house (chuckles) (laughs from the crowd) but I’m sure it was very nice (chuckles) but one night I was out...you know, I was feeling really bummed out, I was feeling down...and I looked up in the sky...and saw this star I never seen before and for just one moment...I remember it didn’t last long...but for just one, one second...I stood stone-like at midnight… (...) The other night...we went down and...saw “The Buddy Holly Story” (?)(crowd cheers) and it was funny because...I could never picture Buddy Holly moving...you know it was like, it was always like...uh…like James Dean, he was in the movies so he was moving, you know (chuckles) but Buddy Holly...I always used to have a picture of him like standing there, you know, with that little bowtie and the guitar...so I liked the picture because it made him a lot more, lot real, a lot more real for me, you know, made him a lot more human for me and...I know it’s funny because there was this one scene in the movie that must’ve happened to everybody that played the guitar or did anything that they ever wanted to do, I guess, that their parents didn’t want ‘em to, they’re sitting at the kitchen table and, uh…the mother’s going “Buddy, the guitar is ok for a hobby but (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) you know, you really ought to think about doing something serious, you know” (chuckles) and like (chuckles) you know, that’s what my mother (?) they used to say to me...as I remember for the first, first two years I played guitar, my father could never even figure out what kind of guitar I was playing...you know he used to like, he didn’t know it was a Fender guitar or a Gibson...to him, it was just a goddamn guitar, that’s how he used to refer to it...his head’d stick in, “Turn down that goddamn guitar,” you know...he must’ve thought that everything in my room was the same make...“Turn down that goddamn radio”...“Take that goddamn record off that goddamn stereo” (crowd cheers) you know, “Get up off that goddamn bed”...how God could damn so many things in my room I could never figure out (laughs from the crowd)...but that was...that was always funny like that, you know, it was like...I remember it was getting, it was getting late, you know, I think I was 18 or something and they were saying “Listen, you gotta start thinking about doing something serious with yourself, the guitar is ok for a hobby but, but you need something to fall back on...you can do it on the weekends...you know...I think there’s people in my office, they,” my mother’d say “There’s people in my office, they play on the weekends, why can’t you?”...so...I said “Well, listen” “You just better, what you should do,” my mother was very Italian and, uh ...and still is (chuckles) (crowd cheers) she says “Well, you should” (chuckles) you know and “So what you should do, you gotta talk to the priest, you go down to the rectory, I’m gonna call up Father Ray, you talk to the priest, you have a serious discussion about your future with him,” I go “Ok, ok”...‘cause my mother wanted me to, no, my father wanted me to be a lawyer, my mother wanted me to be an author...and they said “Now, you go down and you talk to him about that but you don’t tell him nothing ‘bout that goddamn guitar” so I say “Ok, ok”...so I went down to the rectory, you know, rang the bell...said “Hey, Father Ray, you know, can I come in?” (chuckles) so he comes out, it was a nice summer day, we were walking around and I was telling him, you know, “My mother wants me to be a lawyer, my father wants me to be a doctor but I like to play this guitar”...he said “This is a lifelong decision, I don’t really feel qualified to make this, you better talk to God about this...I’m gonna send you direct to the Big Man...number one,” it’s like (chuckles) number two, it’s like (chuckles) “I’m gonna send you direct to the Big Man…you tell Him about being a lawyer, an author but,” he said, “don’t you tell Him nothing about that guitar” (chuckles) said ‘Ok, ok, Father”...so I used to spend some time, I used to try to think I’m gonna talk to God, where am I gonna talk to Him? I can’t talk to Him in my bedroom ‘cause I don’t know Him that well, I don’t go to church too much, it’s too intimate, I can’t talk to Him in church...figured I’d let Him get out of the house for a while...so me and Big Man number one or two. it’s like (chuckles) he says “Listen, you come with me in the car and I will take you out to this place called Crematory Hill which is supposed to be this indian burial ground and at night it’s real dark down there, it’s real peaceful, you can go up on the hill and talk to God, you’ll get it straight,” I said “Ok”...so we drove out there, me and him...he didn’t tell me that it was like right next to the graveyard…it’s midnight, spooky as hell...I go “Big Man, I’m not gonna go up there tonight,” he says “Go on, get, Boss, go on, get up there...aren’t you supposed to be so brave and tough? (chuckles) Get up on the hill” so I said “Ok”...so up the hill I go, I’m shaking and I’m scared (?) it’s real dark…and finally I find a nice little spot and I kneel down, you know, I’m looking up and there’s all stars in the sky, I say “God...my mother...she wants me to be an author, write great books or, at least, dirty novels and stuff” (chuckles) “That’s better than rock and roll,” she says (chuckles) “And my father, he wants me to be a lawyer ‘cause he says lawyers, they own the world...but I don’t think they do yet…you know”…and...and it was real quiet...I said “And me, I got this guitar I like to play”...and it was real quiet for a real long time and then there was some thunder...and then there was some lightning...a little bit of lightning, please (drum sound)…and all I heard was this big voice saying...“Let it rock!”...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Growin’ Up”**

“Till the end…till the end…well, baby, I remember you...yes, I remember you...standing on the corner of Richmond Avenue... dressed up...in that blue…with your hair up…eyes open wide… looking so fine...baby’s looking so fine...I’d drive all night...baby, I’d drive all night...little girl, I’d drive all night just to, just to buy you some shoes...and to taste, to taste your tender charms...to have you hold me in your arms...to feel your pretty arms around me...for just one look...baby, for just one look...from your sad eyes...oh, how they cried...from your sad eyes, we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, oh, we let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, let ‘em cry till they’re all cried out, baby, till they’re all cried out, baby, till they’re all cried out, let them fall till they’re all cried out, baby, until they’re all cried out...we let ‘em cry...but only me and you knew...girl, only me and you knew...girl, only me and you knew... the way that they lied...they could tell such pretty lies...they could tell such pretty lies...you could hold me in your arms and tell such pretty lies...and now you’re back...and now, baby, you’re back... now you’re back…well, baby…baby, I’ve been out seeing some things…and I’m back too…little girl, I’ve been out seeing some things…and baby, I’m back too…and I want you, now I want you…to just look into my face…go ahead, look into my face…just look into my face…and tell me them things you used to…look into my face… and tell me them things you used to…and we’ll go, we’ll go, we’ll go (?) we’ll go, oh…hiding on the backstreets…”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, middle of “Backstreets”**

“Wherever you are…come out tonight… (…) (Music stops) Are these guys giving you a hard time down here? (some response)(music continues)…on the piano, Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) on the guitar, Miami Steve (crowd cheers) on the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) on the drums, the Mighty Max (crowd cheers) on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici (crowd cheers) and on the saxophone, the Big Man, Clarence Clemons (crowd cheers)…”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Rosalita”**

“Thanks...thanks...people always bring these flowers...what am I gonna do - plant ‘em in the bus? (chuckles)...it’s like...thanks anyway...this is a song (chuckles)...this is uh, this is a song called “The Promise”...I wrote this right after I wrote “Born to Run”...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “The Promise”**

“I wanna thank everybody for coming down to the show tonight (crowd cheers) I want you to know that we really appreciate it, we do and I’d like to thank you all for supporting the band the way you did over the past three years when we were having some trouble (crowd cheers) this is for you...I hope you like the new album (chuckles)...”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Born to Run”**

“This is for my man right down here…these guys too…”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Because the Night”**

“We ain’t done yet (crowd cheers)…”
 * 05.07.78 Los Angeles, CA, intro to “Quarter to Three”**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//